"SUPERVISING REGION INCENTIVE ACT" S.B. 17:
SUMMARY OF INTRODUCED BILL
IN COMMITTEE
Senate Bill 17 (as introduced 1-18-17)
Committee: Michigan Competitiveness
CONTENT
The bill would create the "Supervising Region Incentive Act" to do the following:
-- Require the Department of Corrections (DOC) to adopt a supervising region incentive program to be offered to field operations administration regions that agreed to seek at least a 10% reduction in parole and probation revocations within an 18-month period.
-- Create the "Supervising Region Incentive Fund" and require the DOC to spend money in the Fund for incentives and assistance to field operations administration regions implementing practices, procedures, and sanctions directed at parole and probation revocation reduction.
-- Require the DOC to make a portion of the money in the Fund available to a region that entered into an agreement with the Department, for the region to begin implementing the supervision practices.
-- Allow a region otherwise to receive incentive funding only if it achieved at least a 10% reduction in parole and probation revocations within an 18-month period.
-- Allow a region to receive additional funding if, after three years, it achieved an additional reduction of at least 10% in parole and probation revocations within a one-year period.
-- Allow incentive funding to be used only for specified purposes.
-- Require the DOC to submit an annual report to the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees on Corrections and to the Senate and House Fiscal Agencies.
The bill would take effect 90 days after enactment.
The bill is tie-barred to Senate Bill 16. (That bill would enact the "Parole Sanction Certainty Act" to provide for the creation of the Parole Sanction Certainty Program, which would be a program using a set of established sanctions to supervise eligible offenders who had been placed on parole.)
Definitions
"Field operations administration region" would mean one of the geographic regions delineated by the DOC that oversee supervised individuals within the region and that employ parole and probation officers to engage in direct supervision of those individuals.
"Supervised individual" would mean an individual placed on probation or serving a period of parole or postrelease supervision from prison or jail.
Incentive Program
By January 1, 2018, the DOC would have to adopt a supervising region incentive program to be offered to field operations administration regions that agreed to seek not less than a 10% reduction in parole and probation revocations in the regions' supervised population.
To be eligible to receive funding from the proposed Supervising Region Incentive Fund under the program, a field operations administration region would have to enter into an agreement with the DOC to seek not less than a 10% reduction within an 18-month period in parole and probation revocations in the region by implementing the practices, procedures, and sanctions, as applicable, under the proposed Parole Sanction Certainty Act, as well as other efforts to reduce parole and probation revocations.
The DOC would have to make 20% of an equal share of the total incentive funds available in the Fund for each field operations administration region in the State, calculated by the number of regions and the total amount of money in the Fund, available to a region that entered into an agreement with the DOC, to begin implementing the supervision practices described above. If a region obtained those funds, the 18-month period for seeking a 10% reduction in parole and probation revocations would begin to run.
Other than the funding to begin implementing the supervision practices, a region could receive incentive funding only if it achieved at least a 10% reduction in parole and probation revocations within an 18-month period.
A region that received incentive funding would be eligible to receive additional incentive funding if, after three years had elapsed after the region received the funding, it achieved an additional reduction in parole and probation revocations of at least 10% within a one-year period compared to the number of revocations in the year it received the original funding.
In developing its plan to reduce parole and probation revocations, a region would have to work with local law enforcement officers within the region, including the sheriffs' departments, circuit courts, county prosecutors' offices, and community corrections programs.
Use of Incentive Funding
A region that received incentive funding would have to divide the funds between the parole and probation divisions within the region in a manner that was commensurate to the percentage of supervised individuals in each division.
Incentive funding would have to be used for the following purposes:
-- The purchase and maintenance of monitoring technology.
-- Job training.
-- Substance abuse treatment.
-- Mental health counseling and treatment.
-- Approved parolee and probationer incentive programs.
-- The employment of additional supervising officers to reduce supervising agent caseloads.
-- Reimbursement for jail services.
-- Evidence-based cognitive or behavioral programs and practices that had demonstrated success in reducing recidivism.
("Supervising officer" would mean an individual appointed or employed by a field operations administration region to supervise supervised individuals.)
Incentive Fund
The Supervising Region Incentive Fund would
be created in the State Treasury. The State Treasurer could receive money or
other assets from any source for deposit into the Fund,
including General Fund appropriations, gifts, grants, and bequests. The Treasurer would have to credit to the Incentive Fund interest and earnings from Fund investments. Money in the Fund at the close of the fiscal year would remain in the Fund and not lapse to the General Fund. The DOC would be the administrator of the Incentive Fund for auditing purposes.
The DOC could spend money from the Fund, upon appropriation, only for one or both of the following purposes:
-- As an incentive to field operations administration regions that implemented supervision practices, procedures, and sanctions directed at parole and probation revocation reduction within the regions.
-- To assist field operations administration regions to implement such practices, procedures, and sanctions.
Annual Report
By November 1 of each year, the DOC would be required to submit a report providing all of the following to the members of the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees on Corrections and to the Senate and House Fiscal Agencies:
-- Which and how many field operations administration regions were participating in the supervising region incentive funding program.
-- The total, if any, of the avoided costs of incarceration realized through the implementation of the supervision practices, procedures, and sanctions for parolees and probationers described above.
-- The total, if any, of the avoided costs to victims realized through the implementation of those practices, procedures, and sanctions.
-- The total, if any, of the avoided costs of the probation or parole revocation process realized through the implementation of those practices, procedures, and sanctions.
Legislative Analyst: Suzanne Lowe
FISCAL IMPACT
The bill would have an indeterminate fiscal impact on the State and no fiscal impact on local government. It would target probation and parole revocations both for technical violations and for new offenses. The Department of Corrections supervises approximately 63,000 probationers and parolees each year. From 2012 to 2014, the State averaged 6,120 combined probation and parole revocations that led to imprisonment per year. It is not known if or by how much the incentives in the bill would encourage supervising regions to reduce revocations.
For any decrease in prison intakes, in the short term, the marginal savings to State government would be approximately $3,764 per prisoner per year. In the long term, if the decreased intake of prisoners reduced the total prisoner population enough to allow the Department of Corrections to close a housing unit or an entire facility, the marginal savings to State government would be approximately $34,550 per prisoner per year. For comparison, it costs the State approximately $3,024 per year to supervise a person on probation and $5,260 to supervise a person on parole.
The amount appropriated for incentives would be at the discretion of the Legislature. The FY 2016-17 Corrections budget appropriated $3.0 million for the incentives.
This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.